NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 

PART OF VOLUME VII 


BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 


OF 


James Hammond Trumbull 

1821-1897 


BY 

ARTHUR W. WRIGHT 


PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE APRIL MEETING, I9II 


CITY OF WASHINGTON 

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 

June, 1911 



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Written by Dr. Trumbull in response to a request for something from 
the Indian Bible. 





NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 

PART OF VOLUME VII 


BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 


James Hammond Trumbull 

1821-1897 


ARTHUR W. WRIGHT 
. \ 


PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE APRIL MEETING, IQH 


CITY OF WASHINGTON 

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 

June, 1911 





0\/\\0(o 

-jrWT 


NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


Of the biographical memoirs which are to be included in Volume VIT, 


the following have been issued : 

PACES. 

I- 22; Wolcott Gibbs.F. W. Clarke 

23- 88; William Keith Brooks..Edwin Grant Conklin 

89-T14; Charles Augustus Young...Edwin B. Frost 

115-T41: Benjamin Silliman (1816-1885) .Arthur W. Wright 

143-169 : James Hammond Trumbull.Arthur W. Wright 


WASHINGTON, U. C. 

PRESS 01* junn & nETwEiEER, JN.C., 
T9II. 








JAMES HAMMOND TRUMBULL. 


James Hammond Trumbull was born in Stonington, Con¬ 
necticut, December 20, 1821, the son of Hon. Gurdon and 
Sarah A. (Swan) Trumbull. His grandfather was John 
Trumbull, a kinsman of the first Governor Jonathan Trum¬ 
bull, on whose invitation he removed from Massachusetts to 
Norwich, in the summer of 1773, to establish a weekly news¬ 
paper which should be the organ of the Sons of Liberty in the 
eastern part of the State. He, edited and published the Nor¬ 
wich Packet from 1773 until the close of his life, in 1802. 
After his death his son Gurdon, with an elder brother, Henry, 
removed to Stonington, whither another brother, Samuel, had 
preceded him in 1798. The latter soon after began the issue 
of a newspaper with the title The Journal of the Times, which 
was changed later to The Impartial Journal. Henry was the 
author of a small volume giving an account of the settlement 
of the country and the conflicts with the Indians, and of some 
biographical narratives. 

Gurdon Trumbull was a man of marked ability and force 
of character. The following estimate of him is from the pen 
of his son, the subject of this memoir:* 

He was one of the band of volunteers who, in August, 1814, de¬ 
fended Stonington against a British squadron commanded by Sir 
Thomas Hardy. At the end of the war of 1812-14, he was established 
in business as a merchant, and began to take an active part in the 
development of the two branches of industry—the seal and whale fish¬ 
eries—for which Stonington became distinguished, and from which her 
citizens for many years received large returns. He became a leader in 
town affairs and an efficient promoter of every enterprise that promised 
local or public benefit. He represented Stonington in the general as¬ 
sembly in 1840, 1848, and 1851; was a bank commissioner, 1839-40; and 
commissioner of the school fund, 1849-51- In 1852 he removed with 
his family to Hartford. He was an alderman of that city, 1854-55, in 
which years he served as one of the judges of the city court. 

From early life Mr. Trumbull manifested an interest in historical 
and antiquarian studies. He read much, and until near the close of his 

* New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 39 , 1885, PP- 288-289. 

145 




NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 

life, his memory was remarkably tenacious. Of the history of his na¬ 
tive county (New London), particularly, his knowledge was thorough, 
ready, and exact. 

The latter words are felicitously applicable to his distin¬ 
guished son, who, reared in an atmosphere of antiquarian and 
historical learning, developed most naturally that spirit of 
zealous and painstaking research and precision of statement 
which he manifested so conspicuously throughout his* life. 

Gurdon Trumbull married, in i8i6, Miss Sarah A. Swan, 
the only daughter of Capt. Thomas and Mrs. Fanny (Palmer; 
Swan. The latter was a descendant of Walter Palmer, one of 
the earliest settlers in Stonington, who had come there near 
the close of his life. His daughter, Grace, born in England 
about 1608, was the wife of Thomas Miner, another and 
prominent early settler of Stonington, whose grand-daughter, 
Grace Miner, became the wife of Samuel Grant, from whom 
was descended Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Other notable fami¬ 
lies were related through the Swan and Palmer connection, 
among which were those of Hon. Nathan F. Dixon, an emi¬ 
nent member of the bar and a very prominent and influential 
citizen of Rhode Island, from which State he was elected a 
member of Congress for several terms, and his son of the 
same name, and equally distinguished, who served a full term 
as United States Senator from the same State.* 

Of his childhood and early education the following passage 
from Dr. F. B. Dexter’s admirable sketch furnishes interesting 
in formation, t He 

was of frail health in childhood, and was much indoors in early life. 
He was prepared for college at Tracy’s Academy, in Norwich, Conn., 
and entered Yale in 1838, in his seventeenth year, but with mental 
attainments and capacities superior to those of most of his class. By 
the unusual range of his early reading also, and his exceptionally 
retentive memory, he was marked out from the first as a unique figure. 
Equally striking with his quickness and brilliancy, which won universal 
admiration, were the lively sense of humor and love of fun and practi¬ 
cal waggery which some of his classmates now recall as his most 
salient characteristic and which diverted him in part from the sober 

* Wheeler, History of Stonington. 

t Proc. American Antiq. Soc., new ser., Vol. 12, 1897-1898, pp. 16-22. 

146 




JAMKS HAMMOND TRUMBUIJ,—WRIGH'l' 

routine of the place. His brain already outgrew liis strength, and in 
the earlier part of the Junior year he was obliged to withdraw from 
college. 

For some time it seemed most improbable that he could ever resume 
study, but his own strength of will and his father’s watchful devotion 
finally triumphed in his recovery. 

While thus debarred from the continuation of his collegiate 
studies, his active mind found employment in natural history 
studies, in Avliich he became greatly interested. His residence 
in Stonington was favorable for these pursuits, as it was the 
port for many vessels sailing to various parts of the world, 
whose captains brought home rare and curious objects, and 
he was thus enabled to add to his collections of specimens, par¬ 
ticularly of shells, in which he took a special interest. His 
collection of these, thus gradually increased, as well as by his 
own researches along the shores of the region, eventually be¬ 
came one of the most complete in the country, and brought 
him an extensive correspondence, by which his name was 
becoming widely known as that of an authority upon the 
subject. 

Among those with whom he was in frequent communica¬ 
tion was Rev. James H. Linsley, of Milford, Conn., who, com¬ 
pelled by failing health to retire from the ministry, had devoted 
himself to the study of natural history, acquiring an extended 
knowledge of the fauna of Connecticut. Mr. Linsley was a 
member of the Yale Natural History Society, which had been 
formed not long before Trumbull entered college, and read 
several papers before it embodying the results of his investi¬ 
gations. 

At the time of Trumbulhs entrance to college, Benjamin Sil- 
liman, Jr., was the secretary and treasurer of the society, and 
the relationship to him would naturally have brought them 
into familiar acquaintance. It seems very probable that Trum¬ 
bull must have been present at some of the meetings of the 
society while in college and have had access to its collections 
and library. However this may have been, he became known 
to it, and was nominated a corresponding member in April, 
1842. It is a significant fact that among the most valuable 
series in the library of the society was a set of Kiener’s 

147 


NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 


Coquilles, of which the greater part was acquired during the ^ 
year 1839, the remainder early in the following year. This 
had been obtained at an expense that appears very consider¬ 
able, having in view the limited resources of the society. Very 
probably we may here discover an important influence in de¬ 
termining his taste for the study of conchology, which for a 
time had such a predominant attraction for him, and which he 
pursued so successfully. Mr. Linsley had been a member of 
the society since 1837, and, in April, 1842, he read before it a 
paper which was a catalogue of the Mammalia of Connecticut. 
This was published in the American Journal of Science the 
same year, and was fpllowed by similar catalogues of the birds, 
1843; the fishes, 1844; the reptiles, 1844, and of the shells. 
The latter was published in 1845, after the death of Mr. Lins¬ 
ley, which occurred in December of the preceding year. The 
catalogues were copiously annotated, with curious and interest¬ 
ing observations, many of the notes having been furnished by 
Trumbull, with whom the author was in constant correspond¬ 
ence. The catalogue of the shells was especially enriched by 
his contributions, nearly one-third of the entries being attrib¬ 
uted to him, and among them two new species which were 
named for him by Mr. Linsley. 

Although thus apparently entered upon a career in which he 
gave promise of attaining prominence and distinction, he was 
destined to find congenial occupation in a widely dif¥erent 
field. In 1847 removed to Hartford, and entered the office 
of the secretary of state, where he remained as assistant to the 
secretary until 1852. Here his taste for historical studies, the 
result of his inheritance and home training, naturally led him 
to investigate the early history of the State and to utilize the 
original documents to which he had access. He soon formed 
the plan of reproducing the more important and interesting of 
these in a permanent form in print, and in 1850 he edited and 
published at his own expense the first volume of the Public 
Records of the Colony of Connecticut, prior to 1665. the full 
title of which is given in the list of his publications. This was 
followed, two years later, by a second volume, covering the 
period from 1665 to 1678, and, in 1859, by a third, which 
brought the series down to the year 1689, with an appendix of 

148 





JAMDS HAMMOND TRUMDUDD—WRIGHT 

documents illustrating the administration of Sir Edmund An¬ 
dros. The contents of these volumes were not mere tran¬ 
scripts, but were accompanied with luminous notes which 
showed remarkable knowledge of the personalities and the 
social conditions of the period. They are not only explana¬ 
tory, but are important for the light they throw upon the docu¬ 
ments themselves and the circumstances under which they 
came into existence. They form a contribution of permanent 
value to the early history of the State, the importance of which 
is attested by the frequency with which they have been utilized 
by subsequent writers as a source of information. The series 
thus so successfully begun was continued under the editorship 
of Dr. Charles J. Hoadley, and numbers many volumes. 

Mr. Trumbull had been appointed State librarian and regis¬ 
trar in 1854, the first to occupy this position, and was a mem¬ 
ber of the committee to compile the statute laws of the State. 
He had been nominated for secretary of state in 1852, but 
failed of election. In 1853 and 1854 the nomination was 
ofifered to him, but declined, and in 1858 he was again ap¬ 
pointed assistant to the secretary of state, which position he 
held until 1861. In this year he was elected secretary of state, 
and, being annually re-elected, continued in this office for five 
years. 

In 1850 he had received from Yale the degree of master of 
arts, and was enrolled with his own class of 1842, and in 1871 
the college conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor 
of laws. He received the same degree from Harvard in 1887, 
and the degree of doctor of letters (L. H. D.) from Columbia 
in the same year. In 1873 he was appointed lecturer on the 
Indian languages of North America in Yale College, and his 
name appears thus in the list of instructors in the college cata¬ 
logue until 1883, the appointment being virtually a compli¬ 
mentary one, as no duties were required of him in connection 
with it. 

In April, 1855, Mr. Trumbull was married to Sarah A. 
Robinson, of Hartford, a sister of Hon. Henry C. Robinson, 
who was also connected with him by another bond of relation¬ 
ship, having married his cousin, Eliza Niles Trumbull. The 
year after his marriage was spent in a visit to Europe, Egypt, 
and the East. 


149 


NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 

Mr. Trumbull was a life member of the Connecticut His¬ 
torical Society, having been elected to membership in 1847. 
-He was its corresponding secretary from 1848 to 1863, and 
president from 1863 to 1889. Among the enterprises of the 
society was the publication of important papers connected with 
the early history of the State, in a series of volumes entitled 
“Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society.” The first 
and second volumes of the series were edited by Trumbull, and 
were published in i860 and 1870, respectively. To the second 
of these he contributed an elaborate article on the composition 
of Indian geographical names, and in the third volume, issued 
in 1895, under the editorship of Dr. Hoadley, was reprinted 
the Rev. Abraham Pierson’s tract, “Some Helps for the In¬ 
dians,” with an introduction and notes by Trumbull. This had 
previously been published by him in a separate edition in 1873. 
It had been originally prepared for the Collections, but the 
edition of the third volume, when nearly ready for publica¬ 
tion, having been destroyed by fire, its issue in that series was 
consequently delayed. 

By a codicil to the will of Mr. David Watkinson, a generous 
and philanthropic citizen of Hartford, who died in 1857, .1 
liberal bequest was made “for the purpose of establishing in 
connection with the Connecticut Historical Society a Library of 
Reference, to be accessible at all reasonable hours and times to 
all citizens and other residents and visitors in the State of 
Connecticut,” and in a later codicil provision was further made 
for “the ])urchase of books for a Library of Reference (and 
not of circulation), to be kept in the rooms of, or in convenient 
connection with, the Connecticut Historical Society for con¬ 
sultation, but not to be removed therefrom.” By the terms of 
the will the president of the society became ex officio a member 
of the board of trustees, but Dr. Trumbull had been named as 
a member of the board before he became president, and he was 
appointed librarian in 1863. He had been active in its founda¬ 
tion and in shaping its policy, and upon him fell the respon¬ 
sibility for the selection and purchase of its books. He pre¬ 
pared the first catalogue and discharged the duties of librarian 
until 1891, when on account of failing health he offered his 
resignation, which was accepted, but he was made librarian 

150 


JAMES HAMMOND TRUMBULD—WRIGHT 


emeritus, an honorary position which he held during the re¬ 
mainder of his life. His labors for the library, inspired by his 
learning and enthusiasm, had resulted in making its collection 
of books one of the most valuable and important of its kind. 

In 1864 he became an officer of the Wadsworth Athenaeum 
of Hartford. In 1866 he edited a reprint of Roger Williams’s 
“Key into the Language of America,” with introduction and 
many notes, and in 1867 published an edition of Thomas Lech- 
ford’s “Plain Dealing: or Newes from New England,” with an 
introduction and very voluminous annotations. His work on 
early manuscripts had given him great skill in deciphering diffi¬ 
cult handwriting, and he had become an expert, and had found 
recreation, in the study and interpretation of cipher writing. 
He had translated a large part of the shorthand of Lechford’s 
manuscript Note-Book, for a projected edition, and had made 
many notes for it, which were incorporated in the edition 
which was published in 1885 by E. E. Hale, Jr. He also trans¬ 
lated portions of the diary of Henry Wolcott, which had been 
kept in shorthand, and published some selections from it. A 
volume, published in 1876, in which he showed up the false 
Blue-Laws invented by the Rev. Samuel Peters and exposed 
the “unadulterated mendacity” of their author, resulted in 
some attacks upon his conclusions which were rather acri¬ 
monious, without, however, affecting their validity, and his 
critics were met with caustic refutation and complete discom¬ 
fiture. 

Dr. Trumbull was the editor of the Memorial History of 
Hartford County, published in two bulky quarto volumes in 
1886. Although, in the preface, he did not claim for himself 
any great part in its preparation, the amount of labor he be¬ 
stowed upon it was very considerable. The statement of the 
publisher, in a preface to the first volume, is to the effect 
that he 

has read, annotated, and corrected every page of the great work except 
the article in Vol. I * * * on the Original Proprietors, which is 

made up largely from his own notes and memoranda. And it should 
be added here that Dr. Trumbull’s many and very valuable notes upon 
the early history of Hartford have been put by him at the disposal of 
the various contributors. 


NATlONMv ACADlvMY IJIOGRAPIIICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 


A glance through the volumes shows that this statement is 
not exaggerated, and that many of th^ writers of the dif¥erent 
chapters had drawn upon his stores of information. He also 
himself contributed a chapter upon the Indians of the Connec¬ 
ticut Valley containing much that was new and of interest. 

His work in the early history of New England had neces¬ 
sarily involved consideration of the aboriginal inhabitants, 
their language and history. From an early period he had 
made a study of their language, and had gradually been ac¬ 
quiring a knowledge of its vocabulary and grammatical struc¬ 
ture that enabled him to undertake with confidence, and with 
the authority of a master, the editions of the works already 
mentioned, in which the language had been preserved. This 
was a task requiring unwearied patience, skill, and sagacity, 
for as the early records had not been made under the shaping 
influence of scientific philological principles, and were depend¬ 
ent upon a crude and unsystematic phonetic method, the at¬ 
tempt to find anything like a well-developed structure of gram¬ 
matical forms and syntax would have seemed almost hopeless. 
But his persistent labors were abundantly fruitful of impor¬ 
tant results. Among other things they brought into clearer 
light the surprising fact that these languages possessed a 
grammatical structure of remarkable completeness, comparable 
with that of the Latin or Greek in wealth of structural forms, 
and excelling them in the power to express minute differences 
of meaning. Again, his study of the languages of different 
Indian tribes, as shown in his “Notes on forty versions of the 
Lord’s Prayer in Algonkin languages,” showed they had much 
in common and were to be regarded, not as independent 
tongues, but rather as dialectic variations from one parent 
stock. 

In pursuing these investigations he had necessarily made a 
minute and prolonged study of Eliot’s Indian Bible, which was 
the great treasure-house for the vocabulary of the Algonkin 
tongue, though popularly regarded as a sealed mystery, a mon¬ 
ument of a vanished race, as well as of wasted energy and in¬ 
dustry. His labors proved how erroneous were such views, 
and when his versions of the Lord’s Prayer were brought to 
the notice of members of distant Indian tribes, though at first 

152 




JAMES HAMMOND TRUMBULL—WRIGHT 


they were not understood, when at length a familiar word was 
recognized the dialectic difficulties vanished, and the whole 
became intelligible. On this point the testimony of Rev. Ed¬ 
ward Everett Hale, who was greatly interested in the Indian 
languages and in Eliot’s work, is very pertinent :* 

There was a fashion perhaps, among ignorant people, of saying that 
his great translation of the Bible was a book of no use to mankind. 
But everybody who knew anything about it, was obliged to say that in 
his study of the tongue of our poor Natick Indians he had unlocked 
the secrets of that extraordinary system of grammar which extends 
from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn. ♦ * * Algonquian lan¬ 

guage ranged so far to the southward that, as the society will remem¬ 
ber, our associate Judge Forbes reminded us that Manteo, one of 
Raleigh’s Indians from Roanoke Island, could have talked with Capt. 
Smith’s Powhatan and Edward Winslow’s Massasoit, and probably did. 

And again: t 

When, therefore, it is carelessly said sometimes that Eliot’s Bible is 
a wretched monument of waste of uniting industry and learning, the 
remark simply implies that the speaker does not know what he is talk¬ 
ing about. Eliot’s Bible is the most important book in the literature 
of a great race, now almost extinct, and, if you please to think so, to 
be extinct in another centur3^ But it is a perfect example of a system 
of grammar which proves to be more complete in detail than any of 
the grammars of any language known in Europe. Its study indeed 
involves considerations in philological science, the value of which is not 
yet comprehended. As a vehicle only for the study of language, there¬ 
fore, Eliot’s Bible is a central book of the first importance. 

Eliot accomplished wonders in his study of the Indian 
tongue, and of him, more truly than of any one else up to his 
time, could it be said that he had ‘‘unlocked the secrets” of its 
complex structure. Of the efforts of the early translators, 
Trumbull says: t 

The greater number were first essays at translation into languages 
which the translators did not yet well understand. That they did not 
always succeed in giving the precise meaning at which they aimed, or 
that the rules of Indian grammar were often violated, is not to be 
wondered at. On the contrary, it is surprising, the difficulties of the 
task considered, that so much has, on the whole, been so well done. 

* Proc. American Antiq. v^^oc., new scr., Vol. i6. 1903, p. 178. 

t Idem, p. 311. 

$ Trans. American Philol. Assoc., Vol. 3, 1872, p. 117. 


153 



NATIONAL ACADLMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 


Absolute mastery of an Indian tongue is, for one to whom it is not 
vernacular, the work of a lifetime, . “Neither have I yet fully beat it 
out,” John Eliot confessed, after twenty-five years’ study of the mystery 
of Algonkin verbs. 

But the progress of investigation has only served to make 
more evident the immense difficulties which the student of 
these languages must encounter in his attempts to unravel 
their complexities and comprehend their subtle refinements in 
the expression of ideas. The very number of the grammatical 
forms systematically employed, and the almost unlimited vari¬ 
ety in the shades of meaning conveyed by the mode of forming 
compound words, have perplexed many a student, or have led 
him into erroneous methods of interpretation. In his article 
on “The Algonkin verb,” Mr. Trumbull remarks that “Pro¬ 
fessor H. Steinthal, in his psychological classification, regards 
the American languages as ‘formless,’ ” and that “Professor 
Fr. Muller, in his memoir on the grammatical structure of the 
Algonkin languages (1867), and more recently in his Allge- 
meine Ethnographie (1873), concedes true verb-forms to the 
Mexican and Dakota languages, but denies them to the Algon¬ 
kin and Iroquois.” His own minute and prolonged analysis 
had led him to a different conclusion from that reached by 
these distinguished scholars, and he presented in elaborate de¬ 
tail the evidence in support of it. With characteristic modesty 
and caution he says, before giving the summary of his results: 

The facts of language are seemingly opposed to the conclusion at 
which Professors Steinthal and Fr. Muller have arrived a priori. 
Seemingly opposed, I say, because I am not unmindful of Professor 
Steiiithal’s warning—that “some languages know how to supply the 
want of true form by devices so artful as completely to attain the ap¬ 
pearance of real grammatical forms.” 

It is a part of Trumbull’s great merit that he was able to 
establish the reality and definite purpose of some of these 
forms, and by long, patient, and persistent study was able to 
show their true place in the grammatical system. Another 
result of his labors was to emphasize the possibilities afforded 
by the American languages of discovering in their linguistic 
peculiarities interesting evidence relating to the early history 
and migrations of the aboriginal races. 

154 







JAMKS HAMMOND TRUMBUDD—WRIGHT 

As an aid to his work upon the Indian languages, Mr. Trum¬ 
bull had formed a vocabulary of Indian words, and for many 
years was gradually improving and perfecting it. The char¬ 
acter of this work is best described in his own words in a 
memorandum in the latest manuscript :* 

In this first essay or rough draft of a dictionary of the Massachu¬ 
setts language as it was written by Bliot, I followed Cotton in entering 
the verbs under the form that Eliot regarded as their infinitive mood. 
I discovered my error when it was too late to amend it in this draft. 
Ten years later I began a revision of my work, entering the verbs 
under the third person singular of their indicative present (aorist) in 
their primary or simple forms. That revised copy I have been obliged 
to leave, at present, incomplete. The materials for supplying its defi¬ 
ciency may be gathered from this volume. 

The work as he left it comprised four manuscript volumes— 
one an English-Natick vocabulary, two others the first draft 
mentioned in his note, the fourth being the revised edition of 
the same, completed with the exception of a few letters, as 
above described. They had been written with his own hand 
in the beautifully clear and legible script so characteristic of 
his careful methods of work. The manuscripts, in accordance 
with his wishes, were after his death deposited by Mrs. Trum¬ 
bull with the American Antiquarian Society, through whose 
agency the revised dictionary was published by the Govern¬ 
ment, in connection with the Bureau of Ethnology, under the 
supervision of Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, who was himself an 
accomplished scholar of the Algonkin tongue. 

Great as were the services of Mr. Trumbull in the fields of 
historical and linguistic study already considered, his work as 
a bibliographer was perhaps even more conspicuous. His 
familiarity, even to minute details, with the life in the early 
New England communities was something marvelous. Hon. 
George F. Hoar, when president of the American Antiquarian 
Society, said of him:t He ‘‘knows the history, the life, the 
manners,' even the gossip, of every New England generation 
from the beginning, as if he had been a contemporary.” 

Not less complete than his acquaintance with the moving 

* Proc. American Antiq. Soc., new sen, Vol. 12, 1898, p. 320. 

t Proc. American Antiq. Soc., new sen, Vol. 5, 1887-1888, p. 3. 

155 



NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 


spirits of that early time was his knowledge of their printed 
works, which was, indeed, unrivaled. He was thus equipped, 
as few or none others have ever been, to render unerring judg¬ 
ment upon the significance and value of the early imprints 
He was able, almost by instinct, to find in some date, some 
chance expression or peculiarity of style, the clue to the au¬ 
thorship of an anonymous writing or the solution of some 
historical puzzle. A characteristic example of this is afforded 
in his article, “First essays at banking in New England.” The 
information contained in it was derived from three anonymous 
pamphlets, the authors of which he was enabled to identify: 
One, Rev. John Woodbridge, by allusions to his personal his¬ 
tory; a second. Cotton Mather, from the analogy of the con¬ 
tents of the pamphlet with certain passages in the Magnalia, 
as well as by characteristic peculiarities of style; the third. 
Rev. John Wise, from references of contemporary writers, and 
from the mention by them of incidents in his career which 
were readily verified. 

In his fellow-citizen, Mr. George Brinley, Dr. Trumbull had 
for many years found a warm friend and one in full sympathy 
with his pursuits. If at times their desire for the acquisition 
of some rarity brought them into the position of competitors, 
this in no wise interfered with their friendship. On the con¬ 
trary, Trumbull ably seconded Mr. Brinley in the labor of 
many years which resulted in the formation of his rich and 
valuable collection of rare x 4 mericana. On the death of Mr. 
Brinley, in accordance with the terms of his will, the sale of 
the library was ordered, and Mr. Trumbull was made one of 
his executors. He prepared the catalogue of the library, a 
monumental work in five volumes, published in the years from 
1878 to 1893, and embracing 9,501 titles. The amount of in¬ 
formation which it contains in regard to the various entries 
gives it a high value as a permanent contribution to bibliogra¬ 
phy, and makes it an indispensable aid to those interested in 
the history of early American printed works. It became so 
necessary a part of the working apparatus of the library that 
it was much sought for, and copies of it commanded a high 
price. 

Among other works of similar character should be men- 

156 






JAMKS HAMMOND TRUMBULD—WRIGHT 

tioned the list of books and tracts in the Indian language, or 
designed for Indians, published in 1873 as a part of an article 
on the “Origin and early progress of Indian missions in New 
England,’’ and the important volume, published in 1904, em¬ 
bodying the labors of many years in forming a list of books 
published in Connecticut before 1800. The nature of this work 
is indicated in the following statement from the Introduction, 
p. vii: 

Among the many literary and bibliographical treasures left by the 
late James Hammond.Trumbull is a series of manuscript slips to which 
he had prefixed the title, “List of Books Printed in Connecticut, 1709- 
1800.” Some of these slips bear evidence of having been written more 
than forty years ago, from which time their number has been added to 
down to the time of Dr. TrumbuH’s death in 1897, although during his 
later years the additions were few, most of the work having probably 
been done before 1878. Each title is in the delicate and beautiful hand¬ 
writing of Dr. Trumbull, and each is written with the care and neatness 
so characteristic of his work. 

By the courtesy of Miss Annie Eliot Trumbull this list, prepared by 
her father, has been placed at the disposal of the Acorn Club for print¬ 
ing, and Miss Trumbull has still further increased the club’s indebted¬ 
ness to her by comparing the slips with other manuscript notes left by 
her father, a comparison which resulted in a few corrections and in the 
addition of a number of titles that had been noted but not previously 
incorporated in the list. 

The work was edited by Miss Trumbull, who also prepared 
the lists at the end and the index. 

These works by no means complete the tale of his biblio¬ 
graphical work. Hardly less important must be reckoned the 
vast amount of valuable material embodied in the notes with 
which he enriched the many works edited or published by him, 
and the aid he so generously gave to many workers by his 
correspondence, involving often much labor and research. 

Mr. Trumbull’s activities were not limited to the works hith¬ 
erto enumerated. He was a member of many societies, and his 
communications were frequent and of great value. His con¬ 
nection with the Connecticut Historical Society has already 
been mentioned. In 1855 he was elected a member of the 
American Antiquarian Society. He furthered the efforts of 
the society to collect the public documents of the States by 
forwarding ten volumes of Connecticut documents, dating from 

157 


NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 


1851 to 1854, and thereafter made many donations to it. He 
was appointed in 1870 a member of the committee to report on 
papers relating to Indian remains and graphic symbols, and 
made a report of which a brief notice is given in the proceed¬ 
ings of the society. He was made a member of the council in 
1872 and secretary of foreign correspondence in 1874. These 
positions he continued to fill until the close of his life, thus 
serving twenty-five years in the former and twenty-three years 
in the latter. He was a frequent attendant of its meetings and 
an active participant in its proceedings. Some of his most 
valuable contributions to American history were contained in 
the reports of the council prepared by him, or in papers read 
before the society. 

He was a member of the American Oriental Society from 
1862, and read several papers before it. Of the American 
Philological Association he was one of the founders. He was 
present at the first meeting of the association, held at Pough¬ 
keepsie, in July, 1869, when he was made a member 'of the 
committee to nominate permanent officers, also a member of 
a business committee, and was elected treasurer of the associa¬ 
tion. In 1873 he was made vice-president and in 1874 elected 
president of the association for the following year. He was a 
member of the executive committee from 1875 until 1883; also, 
in 1875, of the committee on the reform of English spelling. 
The annual address of the president, in 1875, ’^^.s given by 
him, treating of some general characteristics of Indian lan¬ 
guages and upon spelling reform. His papers read before the 
association were very numerous. They were largely devoted 
to linguistic questions relating to the languages of the Ameri¬ 
can Indians, but some were of more general philological inter¬ 
est. Most of these were afterwards published in the volumes 
of the proceedings and transactions, a few, more or less modi¬ 
fied or extended, elsewhere. 

Dr. Trumbull was elected a member of the National Academy 
of Sciences in 1872. He often attended the meetings of the 
academy, where his presence was most welcome, and although 
he did not present any papers before it, his wit and brilliant 
conversational powers did much to enliven and brighten the 
social intercourse among the members. He had been ap- 

158 



jAMJiS HAMMOND I'RUMBULD— 

pointed in 1882 to prepare for the academy the biographical 
memoir of Hon. George P. Marsh, deceased not long before, 
but the decline of his health did not permit him to accomplish 
the work, and in the later years of his life he was no longer 
able to be present at the meetings. 

The societies already mentioned are those with which Dr. 
Trumbull was most closely identified, but his prominence had 
brought him membership in many others. He was a corre¬ 
sponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society 
from 1850; also member of the historical societies of Maine, 
Rhode Island, New York, and Wisconsin, and of the American 
Ethnological Society. He was from a very early date a mem¬ 
ber of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci¬ 
ence, and was associate fellow of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, Boston. He was one of the founders of 
the Monday Evening Club of Hartford, and retained his asso¬ 
ciation with it as long as he lived. 

Although he was so fully absorbed in other interests. Dr. 
Trumbull had not lost the taste for scientific pursuits which 
had been so active in his early life. The knowledge he had 
gained in Stonington was made available later when he aided 
Prof. S. F. Baird in his work in reference to the history ol 
the whale and seal fisheries on the northwest coast of America. 
He aided Dr. Asa Gray in the preparation of a paper upon the 
characteristics of North American Flora for the meeting ol 
the British Association at Montreal in 1884, and he had pre¬ 
viously co-operated with him in 1877 the production of an 
article in the American Journal of Science on the history of 
the so-called Jerusalem artichoke, the greater part of which, 
filled with curious historical learning, was contributed by him, 
with an introductory note by Gray; and again, in 1883, two 
were associated in the pag^s of the same journal in a long and 
elaborate review of De Candolle’s “Origin of Cultivated 
Plants,” which appeared in three parts, running through sev¬ 
eral numbers of the journal. 

The following, from a notice which appeared in the Hart¬ 
ford Courant of August 6, 1897, gives an insight into his atti- 


15—AS 


159 


NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 


tilde toward liistorical writing and the high estimation in which 
he was held by those who knew him well: 

Dr. Trumbull might have given us a history of Connecticut that 
would have stood first among American histories. He was often urged 
to do so, but he would never undertake the work; and his friends, 
some of them certainly, attributed this shrinking from something so 
much to his taste to his fear that it might contain some statement that 
some other authority would controvert, perhaps disprove. The same 
caution spread throughout all literature would result in the abolition of 
histories; but Dr. Trumbull was not going to commit himself to the 
possibility of blundering, and so never wrote the history that would 
have been for himself a worthy monument, and for the rest of us a 
perpetual source of pride and satisfaction. It is a curious freak of fate 
that the very trait which made what he did write so valuable prevented 
this crowning work. 

Dr. Trumbull was consulted by a multitude of people, and not always 
with the most satisfactory results. Those who thought he had nothing 
to do but answer letters sometimes found he had not time for that. 
People who questioned him foolishly or in annoying ways sometimes 
got curt replies. Among such he was very likely reckoned somewhat 
crusty. But he was exceedingly helpful to those whom he saw to be 
in earnest, and was full of live sympathy with those whose inquiries 
impressed him as leading to right results. With such he would spend 
much time, show them authorities, and freely contribute the great as¬ 
sistance that his large abilities made possible. 

Dr. Trumbull did not, it is true, complete any works of great 
extent, and the multiplicity and exacting nature of his occu¬ 
pations would be a sufficient reason for that, apart from the 
hesitation due to his critical fastidiousness. But although 
much of his writing was upon detached topics, which gave it, 
in appearance, something of a fragmentary character, the 
amount he accomplished was very great, and from its substan¬ 
tial character it will have a permanent value. If his writings 
upon the Indian languages were to be collected they would 
form a large volume and constitute probably the most impor¬ 
tant single contribution to this difficult subject. 

During the later years of his life Dr. Trumbull rarely left 
Hartford, and his activities were greatly lessened by his de¬ 
clining health and failing strength. He continued to grow 
gradually weaker physically, though hardly consciously to 
himself, and apparently suffering little or no abatement of his 

160 


JAMES HAMMOND TRUMBUEE—WKIGIIT 

mental powers. In the summer of 1897 he suffered an attack 
of grip, and from that failed rapidly. After a period of un¬ 
consciousness he passed away on the fifth day of August, 
1897, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was survived 
by Mrs. Trumbull and an only daughter, Annie Eliot Trum¬ 
bull, who had been his devoted assistant, and herself a well- 
known and successful writer. 

OBITUARY AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

Hartford Courant, and other Hartford newspapers, Aug. 6, 1897. 

Yale Alumni Weekly, Vol. 7, No. i, p. 6, September 16, 1897. 

Sunday School Times, by Henry Clay Trumbull. Reprinted in part in 
Yale Alumni Weekly, Vol. 7, No. 7, pp. 7 and 9, November 4, 1897. 
American Antiquarian Society, by F. B. Dexter. Proc., new ser., Vol. 
12, 1897-1898, pp. 16-22. 

Connecticut Historical Society, in Annual Address of President C. J. 

Hoadley. Annual Report, May, 1898, p. 9. 

New England Historic Genealogical Society. Obituary notice with list 
of published writings, by Annie Eliot Trumbull. Vol. 52, 1898, pp. 
294-295. 

James Hammond Trumbull. The Connecticut Bibliographer, by A. E. T. 
Prefatory note'in List of Books Printed in Connecticut; Acorn 
Club, Ninth Publication, Hartford, 1904. . 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The following list contains the titles or subjects of the prin¬ 
cipal published writings of Dr. Trumbull, and of works issued 
under his editorial supervision. It does not include his numer¬ 
ous contributions to newspapers, except in some instances where 
these have been reproduced in a more permanent form, or have 
from their subjects special interest; nor, in general, the in¬ 
numerable notes embodied in the works edited by him. For 
convenience the titles are arranged in several groups according 
to their subjects. 

PUBLICATIONS EDITED. ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPTS AND 

REPRINTS. 

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, prior to the Union 
with New Haven Colony, May, 1665; Transcribed and published, in 
accordance with a resolution of the general assembly, under the super¬ 
vision of the Secretary of State, with occasional notes, and an ap¬ 
pendix. Vol. I, Hartford, 1850, pp. vii, 604. 

161 


NATIONAI, ACADE:MY BIOGRAPIIICAI, ME^MOIRS-VOL. VII 


The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, from 1665 to 1678; 
with the Journal of the Council of War, 1675 to 1678; Transcribed and 
edited, in accordance with a resolution of the general assembly, with 
notes and an appendix. Vol. 2, Hartford, 1852, pp, iv, 610. 

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, May, 1678-June, 
1689; with notes and an appendix comprising such documents from the 
State archives, and other sources, as illustrate the history of the colony 
during the administration of Sir Edmund Andros; Transcribed and 
edited, in accordance with a resolution of the general assembly. Vol. 3, 
Hartford, 1859, pp. xiii, 538. 

A Letter from Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, in answer to the 
complaints of Gov. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, against Connecticut. 
From Collections of the Connecticut Hist. Soc., Vol. i, with introduc¬ 
tion and explanatory notes; Hartford, 1859, 8vo., pp. 18. 

A Key into the Language of America, by Roger Williams. Publica¬ 
tions of the Narragansett Club, Providence, Vol. i, 1866, 4to., pp. 

61-279. 

Plain Dealing: or Newes from New England, by Thomas Lechford; 
London, 1642. No. IV of the Library of New England History, with 
an introduction and notes; Boston, 1867, pp. xl, 21 i. The introduction 
covers pp. ix-xl, and the notes are very voluminous, making perhaps 
half the volume. 

Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. Vol. I, Hartford 
(published for the society), i860, pp. xiii, 332. V-ol. 11 , Hartford (pub¬ 
lished for the society), 1870, pp. iv, 380. 

Some Helps for the Indians: a Catechism in the Language ,of the 
Quiripi Indians of New Haven Colony, by the Rev. Abraham Pierson. 
Reprinted from the original edition, Cambridge, 1658, with an intro¬ 
duction and notes; Hartford, 1873, pp. 67. Issued later in the Collec¬ 
tions of the Connecticut Historical Society, Vol. 3, 1895, pp. 1-67, with 
the title, “Some Helps for the Indians: a Catechism, by the Rev. Abra¬ 
ham Pierson. Reprinted from the original edition, Cambridge, 1658, 
with an introduction.” The introduction covers pp. 3-11. Trumbull 
says, p. 11 : 

This Catechism is the only book printed in any Indian dialect of 
“these southern parts.” It is believed to be the first work of an author 
belonging to either of the two colonies (Conn, and N. H.) that was 
printed in this country. It supplies linguistic material of some value 
to philologists, the Quiripi dialect having a place between the dialects 
of Massachusetts, Narragansett, and eastern Connecticut, and those of 
the Middle States. 

The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884. 
Vol. I, “Hartford, Town and City;” Boston, 1886, 4to, pp. xiv, 70-I, 
Vol. 2, “Town Histories;” Boston, 1886, 4to, pp. x, 570. 

Letter of Thomas Mayhew. New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 
4, 1850, p. 17. 


JAMKS HAMMOND TRUMBUIJ,—WRIGIIT 


Letter of lion. John Saffin. Transcribed from the original in the 
state department at Hartford, Conn. New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., 
Vol. 4, 1850, p.'222. 

Letter from Rev. John Eliot, 1664. New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., 
Vol. 9, 1855, pp. 131-133; with prefatory notice and annotations. 

Gov. Cradock’s Bequest to the Poor of- St. Swithen’s Parish (Lon¬ 
don). New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 9, 1855, pp. 247-248. 
Communicated, with extract, from the Twenty-third Report of the 
Commissioner on Charities in England, in reference to the manner in 
which the bequest was disposed of. 

Sermons by Rev. Samuel Parris, of Salem Village, 1689-1694. New 
England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 12, 1858, pp. 127-128. Extracts, with 
comments, from volume of manuscript sermons in the library of the 
Connecticut Historical Society. 

Abstract of the will of Andrew Osborne, of London, 1614. New 
England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 12, 1858, pp. 131-132; with note signi¬ 
fying that it might be of some genealogical interest. 

Pedigree of Miner. Corrections and descriptions of arms impaled 
with Miner. From manuscript deposited in the library of the Connecti¬ 
cut Historical Society. New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 13, 1859, 
p. 161. 

Letter of Baron de Kalb. Reprinted from the Independent, with 
brief comment. Mag. American Hist., N. Y., Vol. 9, 1883, pp. 384-385. 

INDIAN LANGUAGES AND HISTORY, AND RELATED 

SUBJECTS. 

Derivation of words of Indian origin, in Webster’s Dictionary, edi¬ 
tion of 1864. 

About Pashbesliauke, the place where John Winthrop, jun., found 
himself on the 7th of April, 1636 . . . “the forte called Saybrookc 

forte also Pashbeshaiiks, at the mouth of the River Kennecticut.’’ Let¬ 
ter to Charles Deane. Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., ist ser., Vol. 8, 
18^)4-1865, p. 475- 

A Key into the Language of America, by Roger Williams. (See p. 
162.) 

On the results of my analysis of the name [Shawmut] by which the 
peninsula of Boston is said to have been known to the Indians there¬ 
about. Letter to Charles Folsom. Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., ist 
ser., Vol. 9, 1866-1867, pp. 3/6-379- 

The name Massachusetts. Proc. American Antiq. Soc., October, 1867, 

pp. 79-84. 

Mattapan or Mattapan-ock. Indian name of part of Dorchester Neck 
(South Bo.ston). Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries concern¬ 
ing the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America (New York), 
2d ser., Vol. -|, 1868, p. 317. 

On onomatopoeia in the Algonkin languages. Proc. American Orient. 
Soc., 1868, p. XI,VII. 

163 


NATJONAI, ACADIvMY JUGGRAl'HICAL MEMOIRS—VOL. VII 

On the Algonkin name Manit or Manitoii, sometimes translated 
“Great Spirit” and “God.” Proc. American Orient, Soc., October, 1869, 
p. Lix; and Old and New, Vol. i, 1870, pp. 337 - 342 . 

On the best method of studying the North American languages. 
Proc. American Philol. Assoc., ist annual session, 1869, pp. 25-26, ab¬ 
stract; Trans., Vol. i, 1869-1870, pp. 55 - 79 - 

On some mistaken notions of Algonkin grammar, and on mistrans¬ 
lations of words from Eliot’s Bible, in the language of the Indians of 
Massachusetts. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 2d annual session, 1870, 
pp. 13-14, abstract; Trans., Vol, i, 1869-1870, pp, 105-123. 

On Indian inscriptions. Proc. American Antiq. Soc., October, 1870, 
pp. 9-10. 

Indian names in Virginia. Historical Magazine, and Notes and 
Queries concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of Amer- 
ica (New York), 2d ser., Vol. 7, 1870, pp. 47-48. 

Thevet’s specimens of the Indian language of Norumbega. Idem, 
P. 239. 

On Algonkin names of the dog and the horse. Proc. American Philol. 
Assoc., 2d annual session, 1870, pp. 16-17, abstract. 

The composition of Indian geographical names, illustrated from the 
Algonkin languages. Coll. Connecticut Hist. Soc., Vol. 2, 1870, pp. 1-50. 
Separate issue, Hartford, 1870, pp. 51. 

A mode of counting, said to have been used by the Wawenoc In¬ 
dians of Maine. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 3d annual session, 
1871, pp. 13-14, abstract. 

On Algonkin names of man. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 3d 
annual session, 1871, p. 23, abstract; Trans., Vol. 2, 1871, pp. 138-158. 

Contributions to the comparative grammar of the Algonkin languages. 
Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 3d annual session. New Haven, July, 
1871, pp. 28-29. Abstract of a paper founded on twenty-five versions 
of the Lord’s Prayer, in nineteen languages of the Algonkin stock. 

English words derived from Indian languages of North America. 
Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 4th annual session, 1872, pp. 12-13, ab¬ 
stract; Trans., Vol. 3^ 1872, pp. 19-32. 

Notes on forty versions of the Lord’s Prayer in Algonkin languages. 
Trans. American Philol. Assoc., Vol. 3, 1872, pp. 113-218. Note by 
J. H. T. Presented at the New Haven session, July, 1871, and subse¬ 
quently revised and extended. 

Indian local names in Rhode Island. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 
4th annual session, 1872, pp. 19-20, abstract. 

Indian deeds, covenants, etc., recorded (by Thomas ‘and Matthew 
Mayhew) between 1680 and 1702, in the Vineyard dialect. Letter to 
Robert C. Winthrop, dated February 27, 1872. Proc. Massachusetts 
Hist. Soc., ist ser., Vol. 12, 1871-1873, pp. 213-214. 

Some Helps for the Indians * * *, by Rev. Abraham Pierson. 

(See p. 162.) 


164 






JAMKS HAMMOND TRUMBULD—WRIGHT 

Origin and early progress of Indian missions in New England, In 
Report of Council of American Antiquarian Society. Proc. American 
Antiq. Soc., October, 1873, PP- 16-62. This included the following: 

John Eliot and his works, pp. 24-43; 

Books and tracts in the Indian language or designed for the use 
of the Indians, printed at Cambridge and Boston, 1653-1721, pp. 
45-62. Separately issued, Worcester, 1874, pp. 50, 

On numerals in American Indian languages, and the Indian mode of 
counting. Proc. American Philol. Assoc,, 6th annual session, 1874, ab¬ 
stract; Trans., Vol. 5, 1874, pp. 41-76. 

On names for the heart, liver, and lungs, in various languages. Proc. 
American Orient. Soc., May, 1874, P- Lxxxviii; Proc. American Philol. 
Assoc., 6th annual session, 1874, pp. 31-32, abstract. 

Annual address, as president of the American Philological Associa¬ 
tion. [On characteristics of Indian languages, and on spelling reform.] 
Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 7th annual session, 1875, pp. 5-8. 

Remarks upon paper of R. Ellis entitled, “Observations on Dr. Trum- 
bulTs Numerals in North American languages.” Proc, American Philol. 
Assoc., 8th annual session, 1876, pp. lo-ii. 

The Algonkin verb. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 8th annual ses¬ 
sion, 1876, pp. 28-29, abstract; Trans,, Vol. 7, 1876, pp. 146-171, 

Names of the sun and of water in some American languages. Proc. 
American Philol. Assoc., 8th annual session, 1876, p. 45, abstract. 

Indian languages of America. Johnson’s Cyclopaedia, Vol. 2, 1876, pp. 
1155-1161. 

Notes on the migrations of the Dakotas. Proc. American Philol. 
Assoc., 9 th annual session, 1877, pp. 15-17, abstract. 

Notes. Mag. American Hist., New York, Vol. i, 1877: Pembina, p. 
47; Pemmican, p. 313; Long Island Indians, p. 330; Connecticut Yan¬ 
kees, p. 330; Indian names derived from esculent roots, pp. 386-387. 

A mistaken view of the process of word-making in the American 
languages. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 9th annual session, 1877, p. 
32, title only. 

The inflections of the Micmac verb, Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 
loth annual session, 1878, p. 13, title only. Substantially included in 
the article “Notes on forty versions of the Lord’s Prayer in Algonkin 
languages,” pp. 121-129. (See p. 164.) 

On the meaning and derivation of the Indian name of Groton, Mass. 
Letter to Dr. Samuel A. Green. Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., ist 
ser., Vol. 16, 1878, pp. 4-5. 

The name Oregon. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., loth annual ses¬ 
sion, 1878, p. 13, title only. (See next title.) 

Oregon, the origin and meaning of the name. Mag. American Hist., 
New York, Vol. 3. 1879, pp. 36-38. 

The Indians of the Connecticut Valley. Memorial History of Hart¬ 
ford County, Vol. i, pp. 11-14. 


NATIONAL ACADLMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEiMOIRS—VOL. Vll 


The Isle of Peace. Letter in reference to the Indian name of the 
island of Rhode Island. The Nation, New York, Vol. 33, August 4, 
1881, p. 92. 

Indian Names of Places, etc., in and on the Borders of Connecticut; 
with Interpretations of some of them. Hartford, 1881, 8vo, pp. xi, 93. 

The Indian tongue and its literature as fashioned by Eliot and others. 
Chapter xvii of Vol. i of “The Memorial History of Boston, including 
Suffolk County, Massachusetts.” Boston, 1880, pp. 465-480. 

Translation of the so-called catechism, or rules, etc., at the end of 
Eliot’s Indian Bible. Pp. 4, no date. Only thirty-five copies printed. 
The first and only copy of the catechism. 

Natick Dictionary. Bulletin No. 25, Bureau of American Ethnology, 
Washington, 1903, pp. xxviii, 349. Also issued as House Document 
No. 455, 57th Cong., 2d Sess., 1903, pp. xxviii, 349. 

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 

On the life, character, and public services of Gurdon Saltonstall, 
governor of Connecticut from 1708 to 1724. Paper read at meeting of 
the Connecticut Historical Society, December 2, 1856. 

On the Hartford riot. Hartford Evening Press, October 22, i860. 

Abstracts of two sermons by Rev. Thomas Hooker. From the short¬ 
hand notes of Mr. Henry Wolcott; with prefatory note. Coll. Con¬ 
necticut Hist. Soc., Vol. I, pp. 19-21. 

On the enlistment of negroes as soldiers in Connecticut. Letter to 
George Livermore. Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., ist ser., Vol. 6. 
1862-1863, pp. 196-200. 

The defence of Stonington (Connecticut) against a British Squadron, 
August 9th to I2th, 1814. Hartford, 1864, pp. vii, [ 9 ]- 57 - 

Matthew Grant. Transcriptions of portions of his manuscript note¬ 
book in the possession of Dr. Trumbull, namely: 

Covenant of the Windsor church. Stiles’s History of Windsor, 
Connecticut, Vol. i, pp. 888-889.^ 

Rules for measuring land. Stiles’s History of Windsor, Connecti¬ 
cut, Vol. H, p. 303. 

Family record. Stiles’s History of Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. H, 

■ P. 303. 

Thanksgiving sermon of Rev. Thomas Hooker. Transcribed for the 
Hartford Press, from report made at the time by Grant. Historical 
Magazine, and Notes and Queries ( New York), Vol. 5, 1861, p. 32, note. 

Authorship of lines in M'Fingal. Idem, p. 254, note. 

The Origin of “M'Fingal.” Gage’s proclamation of June 12, 1775, in 
burlesque verse, by John Trumbull. Historical Magazine, and Notes 
and Queries (New York), 2d ser., Vol. 3, 1868, pp. i-io. The burlesque 
of Gage’s proclamation was later amplified in M'Fingal. J. H. Trum¬ 
bull’s notes fill pp. 8-10. 


166 


JAMES HAMMOND T^RUMBUEE— WRICHT' 

Poems by the Stiles Family. Review of “A family tablet: containing 
a selection of original poetry; Boston, 1796,” showing that “the selected 
poems are all anonymous. It is only by internal evidence that they are 
discovered to have been' written by members of the family of the Rev. 
Dr. Ezra Stiles, Pres, of Y. C., and to have been edited by his son-in- 
law, the Rev. Abiel Holmes, afterwards D. D., and American Annalist.” 
Historical IVlagazine, and Notes and Queries (New York), 2d ser., Vol. 

4, 1868, pp. 276-277. 

The origin of the expedition against Ticonderoga. Read before the 
Connecticut Historical Society, January 5, 1869. (Reprinted from the 
Hartford Daily Courant.) Hartford, 1869, pp. i'5. 

Rev. Samuel Whiting’s Harvard Oration, in 1649. Historical Maga¬ 
zine, and Notes and Queries (New York), 2d ser., Vol. 5, 1869, pp. 44-45. 

Address at the re-interment of the remains of Lady Alice Apsley 
Boteler Fenwick, Old Saybrook, 1870. In report of the exercises in the* 
Hartford Daily Courant, which was republished, Hartford, 1870, pp. 

24. Abstract in Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries (New 
York), Vol. 9, 1871, pp. 153-156. 

Historical notes on the constitutions of Connecticut, 1639-1818, par¬ 
ticularly on the origin and progress of the movement which resulted 
in the convention of 1818 and the adoption of the present constitution. 
Hartford, 1873, pp. 60. Also as No. 2 of the Connecticut constitution 
series, Hartford; printed by order of the comptroller, 1901, pp. 62. 

On recent discussions of the evidence of Phoenician occupation of 
America. Proc. American Orient. Soc., October, 1874, p. cv. 

On the Christian name of the Reverend Mr. Glover, whom Thomas 
(History of Printing, ,Vol. i, p. 222) honors as “Father of the Ameri¬ 
can press.” Proc. American Antiq. Soc., April, 1875, pp. 5-10. 

General Putnam’s ride to Concord. (Reprinted from the Hartford 
Daily Courant.) New England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 29, 1875, p. 503. 

The Pilgrim’s Progress. Humorous chronological table of events in 
American History, 1875, pp. 2. 

Sons of Liberty in 1755. The New Englander, Vol. 35, 1876, pp. 

299-313- 

The True-Blue Laws of Connecticut and‘New Haven, and the false 
Blue-Laws invented by the Rev. Samuel Peters, to which are added 
specimens of the laws and judicial proceedings of other colonies and 
some blue-laws of England in the reign of James I. Hartford, 1876, 
pp. VIII, 9-360. 

The Rev. Samuel Peters, his defenders and apologists, with a reply ^ 
to the Churchman’s Review of “The True-Blue Laws of Connecticut,” 
etc. (Reprinted from the Hartford Daily Courant.) Plartford, 1877, 
pp. 26. 

Conference of the elders of Massachusetts with the Rev. Robert 
Lenthal, of Weymouth, held at Dorchester, February 10, 1639. The 
Congregational Quarterly, new ser., Vol. 9, i 877 > PP. 232-248. 

167 


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NATIONAL ACADEMY DIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS—VOE. VII 

On Rev. Mr. Lenthal’s troubles in Weymouth. Letter to Hon. C. F. 
Adams. Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., ist ser., Vol. i6, 1878, p. 203. 

Eliphalet Dyer. Biographical sketch. Pennsylvania Mag. Hist. Biog., 
Vol. 3, 1879, PP. 174-177. 

The New England primer and its predecessors. Sunday School 
Times, April 29 and May 6, 1883. 

Catechisms of Old and New England. Supplementary to the two 
former papers. Sunday School Times, September 8 and 15, 1883. 

First essays at banking and the first paper money in New England. 
In Report of Council of American Antiquarian Society. Proc. Ameri¬ 
can Antiq. Soc., new ser., Vol. 3, 1883-1885, pp. 266-303. Privately 
printed, Worcester, 1884, pp. 40. Gives new and supplementary facts 
in respect to these subjects, and also in regard to a rare tract entitled 
“Severals relating to the Fund,” of which internal evidence shows the 
.author to have been Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newbury. 

A business firm in the Revolution. Barnabas Deane & Co. Mag. 
American Hist., New York, Vol. 12, 1884, pp. 17-28. 

A sketch of the life of Thomas Lechford. Pages vii-xxviii of the 
edition of Lechford’s Note-Book, by E. E. Hale, Jr., Cambridge, 1885, 
pp. XXVIII, 460. Trumbull translated most of the shorthand, and had 
made many notes for a projected edition, which are incorporated in the 
volume. 

Biographical notice of Gurdon Trumbull. New England Hist. Geneal. 
Reg., Vol. 39, 1885, pp. 29S-299. 

Early apples and old cider—a Windsor orchard in 1650. In History 
of Windsor, Conn., by Henry R. Stiles, Vol. i, Hartford, 1891, pp. 422- 
423. An account of the orchard of Mr. Henry Wolcott, first published 
in the Hartford Press, from the manuscript note-book of Mr. Wolcott, 
which was kept in shorthand. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. 

On the question of the authorship of the English translation of Chas- 
tellux’s “Voyages dans I’Amerique.” Letter to Robert C. Winthrop, 
dated March 29, 1869. Proc. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., ist ser., Vol. ii, 
1869-1870, pp. 5-9. 

Catalogue of books and tracts in the Indian language. (See p. 165.) 

A lost tract by Roger Williams brought to light. Notice, from the 
Hartford Daily Courant, of a tract by Roger Williams, printed in 
London in 1652, and hitherto unknown to all his biographers. New 
England Hist. Geneal. Reg., Vol. 28, 1874, p. 231. 

Catalogue of the American library of the late Mr. George Brinley, 
of Hartford. Part I, Hartford, 1878, pp. vi, i, 306; Part II, Hartford, 
1880, pp. XIV, I, 200; Part III, Hartford, 1881, pp. x, 179; Part IV, 
Hartford, 1886, pp. xi, 254; Part V, Hartford, 1893, pp. (8), 158, + ! 
addenda. A special edition contains a sketch of the life of Mr. Brinley 
and an alphabetical index to the entire catalogue. 

168 


JAMKS HAMMOND TRUMBULL-WRIGHT 

List of books printed in Connecticut, 1709-1800. Edited by Miss 
Annie Eliot Trumbull, from the manuscript notes left by her father. 
An author alphabet of 1741 titles; with a chronological list and list of 
printers. Acorn Club, Publications, No. 9, Hartford, 1904, pp. xv, 251. 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS. 

Contributions to Linsley’s catalogues of the Mammalia, Birds, Rep¬ 
tiles, Fishes, and Shells, of Connecticut. American Journ. Sci., ist sen, 
Vol. 44, 1843, PP- 249-274; 1st sen, Vol. 46, 1844, pp. 37-51; ist sen, 
Vol. 47, 1844, pp. 55-80; and ist sen, Vol. 48, 1845, pp. 271-286. 

On Japanese admixture in the northwest. Proc. American Antiq. 
Soc., April, 1872, pp. 5-6. Remarks upon paper of Mr. Horace Davis 
on the subject. 

Notes on the history of Helianthus tuberosus, the so-called Jerusalem 
artichoke, by J. Hammond Trumbull and Asa Gray. American Journ. 
Sci., 3d sen, Vol. 13, 1877, pp. 347-352. Historical references by Trum¬ 
bull, with prefatory note by Gray. 

Cork, Orchel, and Jarrock. Proc. American Philol. Assoc., 9th an¬ 
nual session, 1877, pp. 19-21. 

Review of De Candolle’s “Origin of Cultivated Plants;” with anno¬ 
tations upon certain American species; by Asa Gray and J. Hammond 
Trumbull. American Journ. Sci., 3d sen, Vol. 25, 1883, pp. 245-255; 
Part H, idem, pp. 370-380; Part HI, American Journ. Sci., 3d sen, Vol. 
26, 1883, pp. 128-129. 


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